Rose Willis Noupoort: From Steam to Wind Karoo Cameos Series Hosted by the Karoo Development Foundation NOUPOORT From Steam to Wind By Rose Willis [email protected] 2021 Series editor: Prof Doreen Atkinson [email protected] ROSE WILLIS is the author of The Karoo Cookbook (2008), as well as the monthly e-journal Rose’s Round-up. She co-authored Yeomen of the Karoo: The Story of the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital at Deelfontein, with Arnold van Dyk and Kay de Villiers (2016). 1 Rose Willis is the author of The Karoo Cookbook (Ryno Struik Publishers, 2008), and the e-journal Rose’s Roundup. She co-authored Yeomen of the Karoo: The Story of the Imperial Rose Willis Noupoort: From Steam to Wind Noupoort is somewhat different to most little Karoo towns. The village, which was not started by the church, mushroomed around a railway station. It played a very important role in the Anglo-Boer War. Noupoort is situated 54km south of Colesberg and 45km north of Middelburg. It lies against a mountainous backdrop. A scenic gravel road wends its way eastwards from Noupoort, through broken hills and valleys towards the remote farmstead of Oorlogspoort, before turning south towards the railway village of Rosmead on the R56 which links Middelburg and Steynsburg. There is also a well-engineered pass that connects Noupoort to Middelburg on the N9 route. With fairly easy gradients, the 7km long road affords views of stunning Karoo landscape and a drive through here is well worth the effort. This is Carlton Pass, and it takes its name from the large mountain to the south of Noupoort, known as Carlton Hills. The Kikvorsberge (or “Frog Mountains”), to the north-east of Noupoort, is a harsh and desolate environment. This sandstone escarpment consists of a high plateau, more than 1700m above sea level. It features dense vegetation and undulating grassland which is broken by sandstone ledges and outcrops of dolerite. In places, the sandstone bedrock is exposed in large sheets. There are many shallow pools, which archaeologists call waterbakke (water basins). Image: Chris Marais www.karoospace.co.za In early days, the low-lying area between Kikvorsberg in the north and Caroluspoort (where the station was built) was a dangerous place to work because it was densely wooded and thickly overgrown with matjiesriet (cape bulrush) and fluitjiesriet (whistling reeds) that afforded excellent shelter for the many predators that lurked in the bushes. Even the cattle herders and shepherds kept a constant eye out for lions and leopards. 2 Rose Willis Noupoort: From Steam to Wind PREHISTORIC CREATURES AND EARLY DWELLERS Several sites south and south-east of Noupoort have revealed Lystrosaurus fossils, which date from just after the catastrophic end-Permian Mass Extinction of 252 million years ago. Noupoort’s early prehistoric inhabitants included the four-legged, pig-sized Lystrosaurus. Lystrosaurus (from Benton 2003) For thousands of years, stone age people roamed through the northern Karoo near Noupoort. In the valley of the Zeekoei River, which lies immediately west of the Noupoort, some 10 000 archaeological sites have been found. There are few caves in the Karoo, and therefore most sites consist of open scatterings of stone artefacts, ostrich eggshell fragments and occasionally, pottery. Several farms near Noupoort have archaeological remnants, such as Holbrook, Blydefontein and Hartebeesthoek. Holbrook, Blydefontein and Hartebeesthoek, east of Noupoort 3 Rose Willis Noupoort: From Steam to Wind The most recent archaeological remains relating to the San have been historically described as the “Smithfield Industry”, and are found from the Free State to the Northern and Eastern Cape. These remnants typically consist of flaked stone tools, grinding equipment, bored stones, and potsherds, according to Dr Tim Hart. Typical stone age artefacts Images: Tim Hart About a thousand years ago, Khoi herders moved into the Karoo. Khoikhoi kraals were almost always built adjacent to or against low ridges and cliffs. Anywhere where there is a cluster of rock that provided shelter from the wind or a shallow cave inevitably has archaeological material associated with it. On the farm Holbrook, east of Noupoort, a scatter of Middle Stone Age material is associated with this stone outcrop On the farm Hartebeeshoek, historic kraals have been built over earlier Stone Age scattered remains. Images : Tim Hart 4 Rose Willis Noupoort: From Steam to Wind On the farm Blydefontein, in the upper reaches of the Oorlogspoort River in the Kikvorsberge, researchers discovered late Stone Age tools near a reliable water source. People already lived here about 13 600 years ago. About a thousand years ago, Khoi people moved into the Karoo with their livestock. They tended to prefer valley bottoms where there were rivers and fountains, shelter from the prevailing winds as well as the potential for grazing small stock on or close to the sandy riverbeds. Also important were low ridges adjacent to flat plains. Where low ridges, cliffs and shallow caves were available, the Khoi would build their kraals to provide shelter from the wind. Blydefontein Rock Shelter Image: CB Bousman Blydefontein farm today Wandering trekboere (migrant farmers) braved it into these mountainous areas by the late 1700s. So did some explorers, ivory hunters and official travelling parties. One of the earliest official groups arrived in the area in 1803. This party included Governor-General Jan Willem Janssens, and his aide-de-camp, an artillery captain, Willem Bartholomé Eduard Paravicini di Capelli. With them was Cape colonist Dirk Gysbert van Reenen, a prominent burger, winemaker, beer brewer and owner of several farms. He kept a diary, which was later published. Also in the party were Van Reenen’s son, Daniel, Coenraad Nelson, the second lieutenant, H Gilmer, who was in command of a detachment of Dragoons, the surgeon-major JP Passet. 5 Rose Willis Noupoort: From Steam to Wind Governor Jan Willem Janssens (left) and Dirk Gysbert van Reenen (right) The expedition left Cape Town 2 April 1803, accompanied by three sturdy wagons, each drawn by twelve oxen and loaded with provisions, camping equipment, small articles of furniture, cooking utensils, stationery, sets of horse-shoes, a variety of hardware and equipment for lifting, hauling and carrying. There was also a comfortable travelling-wagon, for use in the case of sickness or bad weather. On 15 July, this substantial party stayed over on the farm Caroluspoort, then the home of Johannes Petrus van der Walt, but getting there was not without excitement. Paravincini wrote: “Descending through the Roodeberg we saw for the first time in the far distance some gnus (called by the Colonists blaauw wildebeest on account of their wild and wonderful capers). One of the farmers found a quagga foal. By two o'clock, the General was at Caroluspoort, the cattle-farm of commandant Johannes van der Walt, but Mr van Reenen, Dr Passet and I had got lost on the way while following a large herd of hartebeest. We only found the camp long after dark, having had to light a signal-fire and fire many shots.” These emergency measures eventually brought a search party sent out by Van der Walt to their camp. After leaving Caroluspoort, the company hunted eland and shot 17 which were picked up by the wagons. They then stayed over at Ventersfontein, in the hills behind the Roodeberg, before travelling further inland. 6 Rose Willis Noupoort: From Steam to Wind . Caroluspoort, the historic farm just west of Noupoort The expansion of frontier farming brought these farmers into conflict with the Khoisan occupants of these remote Karoo regions. The trekboers who established themselves onto the upper escarpment launched an almost successful campaign to drive the San out of the area. Numerous place names throughout the Karoo such as Oorlogspoort (east of Noupoort) are testimony the skirmishes of the late 18th century. The situation became so desperate that the colonists fought back by establishing the Commando system – the “hunting” of San was officially sanctioned in 1777. From 1835, Dutch farmers began moving out of the Cape and into the interior in search of greener pastures, and to escape British rule. During this exodus which was to become known as The Great Trek, some wagons passed through this part of the Karoo. A favourite camping spot was always the farm Caroluspoort, just west of Noupoort. THE RAILWAY REVOLUTION With the development of the railway line from Port Elizabeth into the hinterland in the 1880s came new railway stations. By 1881, the railway line ended on the farm Carlton, a wild area on the escarpment, 10 km south of the modern day of Noupoort. 7 Rose Willis Noupoort: From Steam to Wind Work was held up while authorities waited for an agreement between the Cape Colony and the Orange Free State before the continuing the line and so all goods had to be transported from this remote spot by ox-wagon to inland destinations. At times, as many as 90 wagons were outspanned on this farm and its neighbour, Naauwpoort, the home of Mr Diston, waiting to transport goods from the station to destinations inland. The Noupoort station was erected on the farm Hartebeeshoek in 1884, then owned by Barend Kruger. At first a few railway shacks were erected to house the workers on the installation of the rail. The first real railway house was built in Noupoort in 1890. By 1898 there were more than 20 railway houses, and the town was known as Naauwpoort (“narrow pass”). The reason for this, it was said, was because nearly all the railway personnel were English speaking and the name Hartebeeshoek was too much of a tongue twister for them. (In 1963, the Dutch spelling was changed to the Afrikaans name Noupoort).